"Now You Know"

California’s City of the Dead has a little over 1.5 million residents. About 1500 of those residents are alive. Near the beginning of the 20th century, San Francisco politicians began a campaign to move the cemeteries out of town by promoting the idea that cemeteries spread disease, the more important reason being that they wanted [more…]

What is the Great Thurible? A – A long lost uncle by marriage that just left you wealthy. B – A Norse godling. C – A new super-hero with the ability to throw lighting bolts. D – None of the above. The answer is D. I’m sure most of you knew from the beginning that [more…]

Krak des Chevaliers is a Crusader fortress in Syria and one of the premier preserved medieval military castles in the world. It is located west of the city of Homs and close to the border of Lebanon. It is administratively part of the Homs Governorate but is an excellent day-trip if headquartering in Hama or [more…]

Apamea, just to the northwest of Hama, Syria, was a treasure city of the Seleucid kings and was capital of the ancient province of Apamene. At various times the city was known as Pharmake, Pella, Cherronesos, and was the Biblical city of Shepham. Apamea was so closely tied to Jerusalem the first-fruits brought from that [more…]

The Water Wheels of Hama are part of an ancient irrigation system and were used to raise water into aqueducts. They have been used for a couple of thousand years to irrigate the city and surrounding valleys. There is an old mosaic in the Hama museum, found in Apamea and dated to 469 A.D. showing [more…]

The Alhambra (Calat Alhambra – “the red fortress”), is a fort and palace complex built during the mid 14th century by the Moorish rulers of Granada. The Alhambra's palaces were built for the last Muslim Emirs (Kings) to rule in Spain, the Nasrid dynasty. It was started in the thirteenth century by the founder of [more…]

The home of the President of United States was officially named the White House in October 1901. Construction of the building started in 1792, and the John Adams was the first President to occupy the building in 1800, even though it was far from finished. During the 19th century it was variously known as the [more…]

The Step Pyramid at Saqqara, the Pyramid of Zoser, is the oldest known free standing stone structure in the world and the first of the Egyptian Pyramids. King Zoser’ name was Netjerykhet. The name Zoser was given by New Kingdom visitors to the monument, thousands of years later. The original name of the Step Pyramid [more…]

Is the Pyramid of Kufu (the Great Pyramid of today) really one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World? Actually, no. It was the Pyramid of Khafre, the second largest pyramid at Giza which was the Great Pyramid of the Seven Wonders, even though smaller in both height and volume than the Great Pyramid [more…]

The CN Tower in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a communications and observation tower standing 1,815.4 ft. It surpassed the height of the Ostankino Tower while still under construction in 1975. It then was the tallest free-standing structure ‘on land’ in the world. Because the Petronius Platform oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico is [more…]